SOURCE: Bernetta, Sister Mary. “Allen Tate's Inferno.” Renascence 3, no. 2 (spring 1951): 113-19.

In the following essay, Bernetta examines the theme of damnation in Tate's poetry.

                    Gentlemen, my secret is Damnation. 

(“To the Lacedemonians”)

Certain critics have called the verse of Allen Tate Augustan, pointing out in particular his affinity to Pope; others have labeled it metaphysical, after the poetry of Donne's age; still others, in the tradition of the Greco-Roman classics. Yet his basic concern, especially as revealed in Poems: 1922-1947, is medieval. In the Middle Ages there was one drama which took precedence over all other conflict: the struggle of Everyman to win beatitude and and to escape eternal reprobation. Tate recognizes the issue as a subject most significant for literature. With the old veteran of “To the Lacedemonians” he announces: “Gentlemen, my secret is / Damnation.” One way to penetrate the meanings of his work, the difficulty of...